Call for youth workers to receive hate crime training

A report by the Fairer Future Panel, a group of young people from ethnic minorities in Scotland, puts forward a total of 40 ideas for the Scottish government and others to act upon.

In addition to training for youth workers, the report calls for a charter mark to be introduced for race equality, all-party manifestos in both general elections and Scottish elections to be available in the five most spoken languages in the UK to address potential language barriers, and for Education Scotland inspections to include a check of race equality policy and processes.

Members of the group met with the Scottish government's Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance, to present their ideas and discuss the report.

Sam Nadeem, a member of the Fairer Future Panel, which is supported by youth information and citizenship agency Young Scot, said: "The most important thing to improve race equality in Scotland is to educate people and to talk about race equality.

"If the government acts on our recommendations and ideas it would go a great way to help race equality in Scotland and would greatly help make Scotland a more fair, equal and inclusive country.

Another panel member, Axa Ali, said: "The most important thing Scotland can do to improve race equality is to talk about race equality! The more people talking about it, the more awareness is raised. For those who believe race equality is a thing of the past, hearing about other's difficulties may make them change their mind."

Equalities Secretary Angela Constance said: "The report provides essential insights into the experiences of minority ethnic young people in Scotland, and I was impressed by the honesty and passion of all those who contributed.

"We have made much progress in addressing inequality and creating a fairer Scotland, and we want to do much more to support minority ethnic young people to overcome the disadvantages and barriers they face.

"I will consider all the ideas for change in this report, as should others, as we need all in society to work together if we are truly to tackle inequality in Scotland."